Memorial Day

Memorial Day has special meaning to me now. I guess being a military wife, certain holidays tug at your heart strings more than they did before, and Memorial Day is one of them. Memorial Day is a time to reflect and remember the sacrifices that the military gave us. It's also a time to remember the sacrifices that military families give as well. There is no doubt that while the active duty member certainly sacrifices a lot, the families they leave behind have their fair share of trials as well! We have to live every day life without our husband, wife, father, mother, son or daughter. Bills must be paid. Taxes must be paid. Houses must be cleaned. Trash must be taken out. Cat litter boxes must be scooped. Lawns must be mowed. And the list goes on and on and on. Then you have to add it the extras when children have arrived. Diapers, school, tests, after-school activities. We become single parents until our spouse comes home. Not something we like to do! And of course, it never fails that whenever your spouse is gone, something major has to happen. The car breaks down. Your child breaks and arm. It's never ending. Like I said, life goes on.

This Memorial Day we decided to visit the Fredericksburg National Cemetary. In July 1865, three months after the restoration of peace between the states, Congress authorized the establishment of a National Cemetery in Fredericksburg to honor the Federal soldiers who died on the battlefields or from disease in camp. The site chosen was on Marye's Heights, the formidable Confederate position which had proven so impregnable to repeated Federal attacks on December 13, 1862. The cemetery contains the graves of over 15,000 United States soldiers. Most of them are Union soldiers who died in the battles and camps around Fredericksburg. About 100 soldiers are 20th century veterans including at least two spouses. Over 80% of the soldiers are unknown. (I'd like to tell you I came up with that on my own, but I didn't! I got that information from the Battlefield Information Center! I'd hate to be accused of plagerism on my blog!) Each Memorial Day Weekend, the Boy Scouts light 15,000 luminaries to represent the 15,000 soldiers buried there and place an American flag at each grave. It's a breathtaking scene and I highly reccommend that people check it out if your ever in the area.

Just an interesting side note: only United States soldiers are buried in this cemetary, since it's a 'National' Cemetary. Soldiers that fought for the Confederate States are buried in the Confederate Cemetaries in the area. Since they did not fight for the United States, they are not allowed to be buried in a National Cemetary.

North Carolina, here we come!!!

Well, it's official! We're heading to Jacksonville, North Carolina. Chris finally got his orders to be transferred to Camp LeJeune. Chris checks in on July 1 and I'll stay in Virginia with my parents until August when (hopefully!!!) we'll have housing. We're looking forward to the change, even more so since we have a lot of friends there right now. We'll only be minutes from the beach (big plus!) and 3 hours from my brother and only about 5 or so from mom and dad. So that's always good. We're sad though because we'll be even further away from Chris' family (a good 11 or 12 hours) and unless gas prices go down considerably, I'm honestly not sure how often we'll see any of our family! I guess that's life in the military for you. It could be worse though, so we're counting our blessings that we'll still be on the East coast.

Of course, this move means lots of things, like leaving behind friends, making new ones, deployments, getting a job, daycare and dealing with life on a Marine Corps Base. Some I look forward too, some I don't, but I welcome the change and the challenge!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today I celebrated my first 'official' Mother's Day. I say 'offical' because I'll admit that I did celebrate last year when I was pregnant. Why not??? I was mothering someone and taking care of them, he just wasn't here yet! I started off my celebration on Thursday. (I know, a four-day celebration, I have to take advantage while I can!!) Anyway, I was finally able to get a manicure and pedicure, then on Friday I got a massage. We didn't do anything yesterday, but we invited mom and dad over for dinner and today we went to Outback for lunch with mom and dad. Afterwards we got new cell phones! I finally got my pink razor!!! Wahoo!!!

Since it is Mother's Day, I thought I'd share a little bit about what my life as been like since Elijah was born:
Shower: While I love taking my loooooooooong showers, those are nearly impossible. I take a shower when Elijah goes down for his morning nap. Since I never know how long that is going to be (30 minutes to 2 1/2 hours) I have to hurry, because once I get out, I have to get dressed, do make-up and blow dry my hair!! More often than not, unless I'm going somewhere, I don't blow-dry. My hair is easier to manage when it's wet. And when Elijah doesn't cooperate and take a nap, I don't get a shower, or I have to wait until Chris gets home.
Make-up: Since I consider 'no make-up' to be foundation, mascara and lipstick, I do try to put it on every day. Could also be the Mary Kay lady coming out in me!!! I have to say that I have gone out in public without any make-up on (I know, shock of all shocks!!!) but I do feel naked without it and being a Stay at Home Mom, it makes me feel better!
Clothes: I have realized that I was wearing the same 3 or 4 t-shirts in rotation. Mainly because the huge amount of shirts in my closet don't fit me and some of those are for when I worked full-time. I also own about 10 pairs of jeans, but again, only about 2 fit!!! Stupid pregnancy weight!!!
Hair color/Manicures/Pedicures/Massages: I used to spend a lot of money and time in the salon getting primped. Now, not only do I not have the money, I don't have time!! Plus I have to find someone to watch Elijah while I can go. Yeah, doesn't happen. My mom will watch him occasionally, but I can't ask her to do it all the time!
Earrings and other accessories: I barely remember to put my wedding ring on sometimes!!!! Earrings are just another step in my routine that is a waste and a necklace Elijah will just grab and try to eat anyway. When we do go out, I do have all of my jewelry on, but again, they become play things for Elijah. While I do still carry a purse (I can't seem to let it go!!) it is a pain to lug a purse, diaper bag and Elijah when we go somewhere. So I do need to just use my diaper bag as my purse, but what if it's not fashionable?!?! Chris gets mad whenever I come home with a new diaper bag. I told him those are like purses to me, you can never have just one!!!
House cleaning: Yeah, right!! Like I had time to clean my house before Elijah came along!!! Although I have to admit that I do keep the house as clean as I can get it for having a 9 month old. I do know that once he starts crawling, that's all she wrote. I put his toys away every night after bed-time and I also clean up the dishes and the kitchen looks pretty good. The sad part is that we're renting our house out so I have to have a clean house all the time now!! Yikes!!!!

I know, it sounds like I'm doing a lot of complaining, but I'm really not. I wouldn't trade Elijah in for anything, but I don't think anyone is really prepared for a child until they come along. I know I wasn't! While I have been blessed with 5 neices and nephews and a lot of my friends have children, I knew that my life would change, but I didn't know by how much!

Nine months old!!!

On May 1, Elijah turned 9 months old!!! I can't believe how big he's getting!!! He is 22 pounds 14 1/2 ounces (90th percentile) and 29 1/2 inches long (85th percentile). He is not crawling yet, but he is getting up on his hand and knees and rocking. He still rolls all over the place and even pushed himself under our end table and got stuck. He's doing great eating all of his solids and is doing OK with feeding himself. In typical baby fashion, most of it ends up on the floor or in his lap. I'm trying to get him to eat more chunkier foods, but he doesn't seem to care one way or the other, as long as he's getting food. As you can see, he's not missing many meals!

A surprise party for Donna!

One of my oldest friends, Donna, turned 30 on April 29. Her husband gave her a surprise party to celebrate. Our friend, Sarah, from New York even came down to help celebrate. Since Donna is older than us (hee hee hee!!) we took full advantage and made sure she knew that she was 'Over the Hill'. Yeah, I know. Payback is a bitch! Donna's sister had a baby the day before Elijah was born and they seemed to get along very well. The girls certainly loved them! It was so cute to see them surrounded by all of these girls!!! Overall we had a great time and I can't wait until Sarah turns 30 next week!!!

A visit with Auntie Roo

My college roommate and I were finally able to get together for a visit last weekend. Rachel, aka, "Auntie Roo", came down on Saturday to spend some time with us. We had a great time, but we really didn't do anything! Sometimes those are the best visits!! We did go to Sonic (mmm...limeaide) for lunch since they don't have a Sonic in the DC area (I know, major crime) and we took Rachel to Carl's, a Fredericksburg institution, for ice cream! It was sooooooooo good! So if you're ever in the Fredericksburg area, you have to check out Carl's.

A weekend in Charleston

This past Saturday (April 5) was the 31st annual Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, SC. And since Chris is an avid runner, whenever he can, we head down to Charleston so he can participate in it. We decided since it's a 7 1/2 hour car ride (without Elijah!!) to leave on Thursday so we could enjoy the city. We didn't do to bad. We got there around 7:00 Thursday night after leaving at 11:00 and stopping about 3 times. Elijah did so good...until we got on I-26 to get to Charleston. He was done with the carseat! Not that I can blame him. We were able to stay at the Charleston Air Force base in their lodging and only paid $36.00 for a suite! It was great! Full kitchen and all!

Friday was a beautiful 80 degrees, with a little humidity worked in! So that made it nice and hot, but a welcome change from the 50 degree weather we've been having. Our first stop was downtown so Chris could pick up his race packet. After that we showed Elijah the College of Charleston where I went to school. Of course, we took some pictures of the Cistern! He loved it. I think it was his favorite stop on the trip, but Chris will probably say otherwise! Anyway, after that, we grabbed a quick bite for lunch and headed over to the Citadel to catch the parade and show Elijah around campus. Of course we took a picture of Elijah and Chris in front of the bulldog (actually a very cute picture!). After parade we ran into some old friends, including my friend Kenny! Since the race was the next day, we decided to spend a quite evening in the room. Since we had a full kitchen, we stopped at the store and picked up some spaghetti and rented a movie. We laugh that we can't experience the 'real' Charleston since we have to put Elijah to bed so early!

Since we were staying up in North Charleston, Chris got up early and ran the race and came back to pick up me and Elijah. He did so good (and I even saw him on TV a few times!!!) His official time was 37 minutes and 54 seconds! I think his overall placement was 124th place. Not to bad when there were over 15,000 people either running or walking! After the race, we showed Elijah the Battery, Waterfront Park and even took him on a carriage ride. He did such a good job and even fell asleep. Afterwards we ate lunch and walked around some more and then went to visit some more friends out in West Ashley. Sarah and Nate have a 1 1/2 year old named Ella. Elijah likes older women, that's all I can say! Once we got there, the sky opened up!!! I told Chris I had forgotten how bad Thunderstorms can get in Charleston! It was crazy! I was just glad we weren't walking around downtown when it happened.

Sadly, our trip came to an end on Sunday morning when we had to go home. We made decent time getting home, so that's always good. Elijah slept most of the way and slept really good last night, so I know he's happy to be back in his bed and not in the pack 'n play!